Social media curation platform PikiCast appeals with selected content

Social curation media platform PikiCast selects the best media content and broadcasts it on social media networks via curation. PikiCast’s contents are mobile optimized with a simple, intuitive user interface, while features like categorization and personalized cards allow users to customize content.

PikiCast’s mobile app was released on January 2014 and has had an outstanding performance during the year. By offering curated content that appeals digital media consumers, its pageviews already exceed that of Chosun Daily News, one of the major newspapers in Korea. The app has had over 3.4 million downloads in Korea alone, with weekly active users averaging 35-40% of total downloads. Based on its user numbers, the company monetizes mainly from advertisements. There are even some brands which requests indirect ads on the platform, through posts related to a newly released movie or showing images of an beautiful actress with a product logo.

The app has a high retention rate and loyalty from its users, with its Daily Active Users (DAU) at 1 million, which indicates that about one third of its users use it every day. A renowned Korean rapper, Tablo from EpikHigh, became a fan of the app and even requested the company’s editors to interview him. Following this, some Korean celebrities had done interviews with the editors to have acquire unique coverage of their recent activities.

PikiCast’s co-founders started from the experience of seeing how a video uploaded to Facebook could attract so many ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. They started a Facebook page curating content most likely to gain interest from users, following which they developed a formula of ‘what kind of content people like to share’: content that’s funny, touching or useful. As they set up the company and initiated content curation, they later hired 70 content creators with a proven ability to attract and appeal to readers.

The Korean company already has a base in China, the CEO of the company Joey Chang having previously run a telecom company consisting of developers in Chengdu, Sichuan province. When PikiCast started in 2013, the two companies merged together. Following its success in Korea, the company started its beta service in China in late 2014 by setting up a content team in Beijing, who translate the content into Chinese. Now the company is planning to expand its coverage through strategic partnerships with local media in both mainstream and digital media.

There are already dominant social curation media platforms such as BuzzFeed and Cheezburger in the U.S. However, PikiCast tries to embrace niche markets by publishing webtoon, a comic/cartoon contents. The webtoon genre is becoming popular in all Korean demographics, so niche comic media platform Lezhin Comics will cooperate with the company and supply the content. While other possibilities lie within leveraging the various portfolio companies inside of YelloMobile, PikiCast is strengthening its media branding as it can offer bundled and differentiated mobile contents.